


Don't Catch Feelings

by BlueTigarPaw



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama Drama everywhere, F/M, Jealousy, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lack of Communication, Lance (Voltron) Needs a Hug, M/M, Season 3 onwards, Undefined Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-04-26 18:02:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14407518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueTigarPaw/pseuds/BlueTigarPaw
Summary: Lance and Keith hook up after a near death experience and agree to it being a one time thing. Or two, or three; alright lets go more friends with benefits at this point!!But Lance starts to develop feelings while Keith seems to be drifting further and further away. And with Lotor added to the mix Lance’s feeling of jealousy emerge, potentially damaging the fragile teamwork they all worked so hard to build!





	1. Chapter 1

The mission was going smoothly, if Lance would say so himself. And like all good thing in his life that quickly came to an end like a raging space-bull of lasers and explosions.

“What the hell?!” Hunk’s voice buzzed through Lance’s ear drums but the blue Paladin had no time to think; no time to even breath as he brought Red into an upwards loop, corkscrewing out to avail becoming a sitting duck. He sent out a flurry of perfectly aimed shoots behind the black single-man fighter ships; almost invisible against the sea of infinite stars but not to Lance's master skills. Like a protagonist from a Western flick he shot them all down in one go.  
"Huh! Got'em!! Did you see that!"  
"A little busy here Lance." Hunk's voice answered. 'Quiznack. Every time...'

Lance pulled his eyes across the screen blaring red warning signs then followed his instincts as to best get them all out of there. Voltron needed a leader.  
After all, they were currently short their best fighter. The Black Lion remained motionless in the hanger.

“Allura! Cover the left flank. Pidge, sneak behind the fleet so we can pincer move 'em. Hunk, distract the front!”  
“What about you!” Allura cried out but Lance saw that Blue was already flying into position.  
‘What mullet should be here for!’ 

Lance dove with a might roar from Red into the center of the chaos. Lava covered the first row of fighter ships, while the next was taken by Reds claws. His whole body shock as Red was dealt a barrage of hit from his blind spot. 'Dammit, he could have dodged that in Blue!'  
Even with his exceptional skills Lance knew that Red couldn’t take this much damage; and he would bite his tong off before admitting that he wasn’t a good enough pilot yet to avoid ever hit the fighter ships sent his way.  
Unlike 'Mr likes to go on side quests', perfect at everything, stupid mullet head.  
He just needed to hang on long enough for the others to close the enemy in. Then Coran could attack in one hit from the castle. He just had to hope that no Battle Cruisers or Robeasts were nearby. Without Voltron they would be picked off one by one!  
"Coran!"  
"I'm on it. The castle's ready, I just need a few more ticks!"  
And that's when it all went to shit. 

And of course when things go to shit, they REALLY go to metaphorical shit. Ceiling Fan and all. Because as Lance took down another row of fighters, instead of gathering together for protection like Lance had thought they would the fly like ships dispersed like fireworks flocking in lines around a Battle Cruiser that shimmered against the stars; releasing its camouflage. The distinct purple and black became prominent no even a kilometer away from Lance. It must have been some kind of cloaking similar to Green cause there’s no way any of them could have missed that!

A low buzz like a dodgy microphone sang across the vacuum of space giving all the Paladins exactly a heartbeat to move or become French Fries. Hunk and Allura retreated to a safer distance, but Lance realized with his stomach dropping that Pidge had to still be somewhere close by the Battle Cruiser cloaked from the Glara’s radars.  
'Fuck, he'd sent her there!'  
Lance didn’t think twice about spiraling in towards the ship. Red was fast, and he used that to his fullest advantage dodging and twisting around the blinding radioactive laser beam zapping at him like a knife through the sky.  
He had to distract the Galra to give Pidge the seconds she needed to get back to the Castle Ship. This wasn’t a battle they could win and by the voices screaming over the radio the others agreed.  
“LANCE! RETREAT TO THE CASTLE!” Allura cried, worry and fear tainting her order.  
“NOT UNTILL PIDGE IS SAFE! PIDGE!!”  
“I’m right next to the left flank of the cruiser! I need more time to get past, there’s too much cross fire and I can’t let them blow my cover!”  
“I’m trying to distract them! Get out when you can!” Lance doubled up on his effort throwing everything the Galras way. He dodged and spun like a master weaver through the lines of fighters taking down more in one go then he had in all his time being a Paladin.  
He tried to get closer to the Battle Cruiser but the fire forced him to loop and corkscrew his way out of danger, slowing him down. 

Both Lance and Red growled in tiered frustration. They’d go for as long as they needed to get Greed and Pidge out of danger. He pointed Red's nose upwards once more, flying in a crescendo ‘C’ shape until he was directly above the Cruiser. Drawing on all of Reds speed Lance tipped down into a full dive. The fighters hovered unsure about getting caught in the cross fire as the Cruiser aimed its cannons skywards; or the space equivalent of it.  
Lance played chicken as he watched the cannon fry into the metal with sparks before shooting energy at light speed straight at him. ‘Come on…’ Lance didn’t move from his downward trajectory for a moment. ‘Come on!’  
“PIDGE!!’’  
“I’m out!” 

Lance tried to pull out of the way but it was too late. Red’s hind legs suffered a direct hit flipping them both through space like a pancake caught in a ceiling fan. Lance could feel the heat of the laser against his skin. He couldn’t hear the others cries through the intercom through his own screams, until everything seemed to go quiet.  
He and Red were in free-fall. Spinning wildly down into no man’s land silence buzzing around them both.

‘This was it’ Lance felt a terrifying thought.  
He had thought that he’d think of his family in his last moments, probably his teammates all smiling after their first team bonding food fight. But for some reason the last thought that went through Lances mind was him wondering what Keith was up to. That was before the crash blacked his world out.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance came to consciousness slowly and with varying amounts of pain. He knew his wrist and shoulder were broken; both shattered against the dashboard in an attempt to take the fall. His head was ringing, ‘probably a concussion, need to don’t sleep’, he thought before falling back unconscious.

He woke up again with spikes of pain radiating from his arm down his chest. He was queasy as hell and tried to feel around his seat for the bottle of pressed juice he always brought on missions. He rolled his eyes and saw that the whole metal bottle had exploded upon impact against Reds walls, juice dripping into a puddle on the floor. ‘Damn…’  
“Red…where are we?” Lance whimper. He wasn’t scared, and alone, and probably concussed. Nope, he’d get out of this one. Like always, right?  
The screens hurt his eyes but Red still seemed to be awake. Bruised but alive; sending calming vibes his way in the form of low, gentle growls.  
At least Pidge had gotten out safely.  
Lance gazed across the English translation beneath the Altean letters: Unidentified Planet 23684546565…. ‘Great’ Lance moaned. That meant that he was currently on an uninhabited planet, so no help there.  
“Red, homing beacon, plz, thank you” Red growled already on it. ‘That’s my girl.’


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovely people. I'm sorry to say i'm more then likely not going to be finishing this fic in order to focus on my other work. I've left it very open ended so take it as you will and I hope you enjoyed it along the way.

Lance waited there in the cockpit for two Vargas going cabin crazy before the others finally found him. Reds hind legs were badly damaged, so they had to be towed like limp roadkill behind the Black Lion. Keith didn’t say a word but over the video chat Lance could tell his face was scrunched up in shame. ‘As he should be’ Lance drew out the silent treatment just to make him suffer. In the hanger Hunk princess carried Lance out of the cockpit to the healing pods.   
“Lance I…”   
“I don’t think he wants to hear it right now, Hunk gently.” Allura ordered.  
“Ohh, you care about me.” Lance smiled near delirious from thirst and hunger. He saw Allura start to scold Keith before his mind crunched shut in ice. 

It was probably midnight when Lance woke from his freeze. His stomach was rumbling as he unconsciously tried to make his way to the kitchen. His jelly legs sent him tumbling into a pair of waiting arms. Lance’s mind was still delirious as he smiled up at Keith and said “hey sexy”, completely having forgotten why he was mad at him.   
Keith sent him a weird barrage of expression: shame, regret, worry and a ting of amusement.

Lance wanted to be mad at him; he’d left the team to fight on their own, abandoned them for him Blade groupies. But recently Lance had been finding it harder and harder to be critical of the Red Paladin.   
The others were obviously asleep already, just Keith had waited up for him. Nice to know he was thought of, at least time and again.   
“Lance I…I’m so sorry. I should have been there. I let the team down,” Keith looked down biting through his cheek. “I let you down…”   
“Yeah, you kinda did,” Keith flinched like he’d been hit, “but at least you know, and you can only get better from here. I’ll forgive you if you make me some space goo.”  
“Slightly heated with spices and sugar?”  
“You know me too well!”   
Lance couldn’t keep his eyes off Keith. He should be angry, he should be fucking furious. But he just couldn’t find it in himself to be with the body warmth radiating off of Keith into Lances skin.  
Their relationship had changed so much since Shiro went missing and they were forced to change Lions. What was once childish banter had grown into something…

“Here.”  
Keith gently put the bowl down in front of Lance like any loud noise would frighten him off. The two fell into a silence which to be honest Lance found uncomfortable as all hell.   
He shovelled the goo into his mouth in glorious chunks to block it out. He was physically shivering from the pleasure food filling his two-day empty stomach. But as he got to the last bit his eyes returned to his teammate watching him from the other side of the table. 

“You can eat too you know, you probably waited a while for me.”  
“Hunk brought me dinner a bit ago.”  
“Ahh.” The space crickets were playing in a marching band today.   
“Umm…I should head to bed…”  
“Am I coming with you?” Lance smirked giving Keith his best bedroom eyes. The blush that covered his face was adorable. His large eyes all wobbly and anime. He was so confident in everything else he did; but fell apart when it came to Lance. Lance didn’t think that would ever change, their first time had been like that too.

But more drunk.   
Both their cheeks had been flushed red like a five-year-old putting on makeup.

Lance was still a bit wobbly on his feet but as soon as his ass hit the bed that didn’t matter. Keith’s lips met his and from there clothes came flying off like space debree after a battle.   
Both of them were sprouting semies and Lance’s lips fell open to capture Keith tong deep down his throat. Maybe it was from his Galra side but Keith’s tong was slightly rough like a cat, it absolutely sent moans down Lances chest and tight legs. Keith’s hands were gripping Lance’s hips, splayed out rubbing against his ass as Lance knew from the signs that Keith was down to top. 

“You wanna take care of me, huh?” Lance whispered against Keith’s lips.   
“Yeah, I wanna be your leader, and I wanna do it right.” Lance smiled at Keith’s rough, hooded tone and lay down against the red pillows, neck beard and legs wide open; submissive pose all the way.   
It made Keith lose his breath and it would tarnish Lance’s reputation if people knew he kind of got off on this.  
“Then go ahead,” with a tong brought along the seams of his lips Lance smiled gently, “lead me.” 

Their whole relationship seemed to be based on Keith fucking up then Lance comforting him with his magnificent booty and latino moving hips.   
The first time they’d gotten together was after the epic failure that was Keith’s first time leading; and all that drama.   
Lance had found Keith awake hours after the lights had dimmed into hallway shadows. In the common area nursing a bottle of red coloured alcohol (or the Altain equivalent) by his hip.  
In the most technical sense Lance was underage; but Keith offered for company in return. Didn’t matter mullet had already been partially sloshed.   
And technically Coran would have shat cats if he saw the two getting knee deep into the 10,000 year old stash. But they were both teens and the thrill of throwing responsibility away for a few hours was too tempting to let out.   
Lance could tell Keith needed it. 

So they chatted, giggled at Lances stupid Coran impersonations, and Keith scotched a little closer till they were touching hip to hip. Lance couldn’t believe they were actually getting along. The thought filtered drunkenly through his mind as their lips found each other. Lips so soft they glided across each others twirling deeper and deeper inside. Lance shivered as he felt himself swallow some of Keith spit; surprised he found that hot. And Mullet was already dragging Lance by his blue PJ’s towards his room with the door sliding shut behind them.   
Maybe this was a bad start to a relationship. But like hell Lance could resist that blush. 

Back in the present both Paladin’s finished at the same time with knee buckling moans. Their vow to not mess up the bed sheets lost as they fell into the wet patch; Lance’s knees bucking flat with Keith following his pleasure still thrusting Lance in hip rolling waves into the mattress. 

Keith was breathing heavily into Lance’s neck as if it was his last dying breath. His sharper then human nails digging into Lance’s biceps; somehow the pain was a comfort, that he was there with Lance. Better than waiting to die on an unmarked planet.   
Although Lance wasn’t one to pity himself.   
Much.

Keith started to move away and like that the pleasant tingle of breathing in time with another person was shattered. Lance adored intimacy; must come with the large family mentality. And he hated how Keith’s intimacy seemed to only last as long as he was hard.  
Lance turned onto his side and watched Keith gather the clothes spewed across the floor. Lance kinda preferred them that way; made it seem more like love making. 

“So…that it?”   
“Is there anything else?” Keith replied back turned. Ass was still amazing thou.   
“Am I sleeping here tonight?” Keith paused before saying “wouldn’t you be more comfortable in your own bed? You’d have to wake up earlier here as well, not to give the others the wrong idea.”   
Lance’s eyes dimmed a bit. “And what’s the right idea?”   
“I didn’t mean it like that.”  
“Sure.”  
“Look Lance, is there anything here?” Ah direct and blunt, just like the red Paladin.  
Keith’s eyes were conflicted though, he didn’t seem to know which answer he wanted.   
“I guess we’re just two spacemen floating through life, finding comfort in each other’s bodies after near death experiences. Can’t blame us really.”  
“Get dressed.”  
“Nah,” Lance spread his legs a little wider for Keith’s viewing pleasure. “I like being in my birthday suit.”  
“Fine, your walking to your room like that.”  
“Maybe you could join me ;) .”   
Keith was not impressed.   
“God, you’re such a child. No wonder Black didn’t choose you.”   
Ok, Lance knew that last bit wasn’t meant to come out but it still hurt. 

He felt his previous anger shift back into its place like ice falling off a glacier. His teeth were clenching making his jaw feel like he was chewing ice. He didn’t get angry a lot, but when he did…

“And who was there to save the rest of them last mission.” Lance’s tone was like a bad brain freeze. “Who was there to sacrifice themselves whiles our leader was off playing with his blade? In both ways probably.”  
“It was an important mission! We located information about…”  
“I don’t care! I’m not mad that Black choose you", Lance tried to bury his internal expression, "but I’m fucking furious that you don’t seem to care about the position.”   
“I’m trying! You don’t know how much pressure it is! You’re not Voltron’s leader so stop acting like it!” Keith clammed up not wanted to wake the others. He sat back down next to Lance who had his legs curled into his chest.   
“I wish Shiro was back.”  
Lance couldn’t help the curl of jealousy he felt in the back of his throat.   
“Is that ‘cause you wanted him like this?”   
“NO! We never did anything like this.”  
“But you wanted to.”   
“No…I don’t think…”  
“You don’t have to lie. You two were always closer than any of us.” Lance bit his lip.   
“Just because I miss him doesn’t mean we were fucking.”   
“But I’m still your second choice, yeah?” Keith went quiet. “Third or fourth choice? What did Allura turn you down too?”   
“Lance, go back to your room, NOW!” Lance fell silent.  
“Is that an order?”  
“YES!” 

Lance went silent as he put on the rest of his clothes. It wasn’t fair. He felt a little more comfortable being fully dressed while Keith was still just watching him in his boxers. It wasn’t fair.   
“Look, Lance you’re not second choice or anything like that.”  
“Nah, I’m just easy.”

The door slid shut behind him as he made his way to bed. Well no point being sad about it, he knew this was their deal all along. Sure, they’d had ‘bonding’ moments, but those were nothing to the intense barrage of feelings Lance knew Keith felt for others.   
Shadows cut a line across Lance’s face as he stepped into his room. The blue walls were calming, but he still stayed plastered with his back to the door, staring at the paint. 

He’d had a crush on Keith for the longest time.   
He’d been the one to make Lance realise that yes, he was bisexual, and no, it wasn’t just a weird kink that he liked to watch the flexing muscles of the older boys at school. Ever since the garrisons, but like that time Keith had his eyes on other things. Leaving Lance as the pinning party. 

Feelings sucked. 

He lied down but didn’t fall asleep for hours. 

To Lance’s credit he played good the next day and the days after that. He may be just a sex toy to Keith, but that didn’t make him any less their leader, nor did he want to disrupt the rhythm the team was falling into.   
But that didn’t mean that their interactions were any less awkward and robotic. 

As if on cue when one looked the other would turn away. Surely the others could feel the butter thick atmosphere, but no one said anything even of they did.

And with fancy pants prince Lotor continuously on their tail they didn’t get the chance to talk again. Seriously did that guy ever take a break! And what was worse was the way Keith fixated on him; a distraction from Lance. 

They were flying in a V formation, Lance right wing. His loyalty to Voltron would never falter, keeping Red in position to flank any enemies they might come across. It was meant to be a simple recon mission: get info about Galra platoons on Galra occupied planet, come back to the castle, use said info to free plant to join their coalition. Simples. 

Except when a ship flew straight up at Red’s stomach forcing Lance to dive roll out. Hunk used Yellows body to slam the single man ship away, but more joined in creating their own swarm aimed to break the lions apart. 

“Guys, 10:00, a cruiser!” Pidge warned over the intercom.   
“Their coming in a pack formation!” Allura added from Blue in the back.  
Lance flew upwards to get a better view of the battlefield; a familiar ship was coming their way. “Lotor’s here!” He shouted to the others. 

“Paladins! Form Voltron!”

“Let’s Go!” Cutting through the buzzing ships like a knife, they all lined up in perfect practiced sync and flew together to form Voltron. 

Lance closed his eyes as the familiar feeling washed over them. 

All of their minds were connected like this; there were no secrets among Paladins. Allura was hyper focused on freeing the captive planet. Hunk was watching their backs but also slightly hungry. Pidge’s mind was like a tornado taking in all the different ship types and tech that Lance couldn’t hope to keep up. And Keith… was admiring Lotor’s personal ship, weaving in and out amongst the fray like a dancer. 

Lance couldn’t tell exactly what Keith was thinking, it was as if Keith’s back was to Lance keeping his face away from prying minds, but Lance felt a rumbling growl deep inside his gut nearly spill from his astral plane lips.   
It was the same admiration and respect Keith had sometimes felt towards Shiro, and Lance couldn’t help his feelings of inadequacy and hot jealousy flow through him.

Lance pushed his mind onto the battle before the others could realise what was going through his mind as they merged into one.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello peoples, thanks a bunch for reading my work! Hope you enjoyed it. I'm going to try contain this fic to max five chapters so will have the next chapter out next week.  
> Love, Kudos and constructive criticism much appreciated and will motivate me to write!


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